The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Farrell steals the late actor's Parnassus show, says Sarit Ray

An unfair thing to say about a film, perhaps, but nostalgia makes for good marketing. It’s probably why you watched This Is It. It’s why you’ll watch Terry Gilliam’s (now thankfully complete) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, even as it releases in India nearly eight months after opening at international cinemas.

But that’s not to say Gilliam’s fantasy doesn’t impress. It follows the rather absurd story of a travelling dance troupe whose thousand-year-old leader Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), takes audience members through a magic mirror to make the eternal choice between good and evil.

But it’s no scam, as Ledger’s character Tony Shepherd finds out. The mirror is a Carrol-esque tunnel to Wonderland, a dreamscape of video games, giant pearls and pumps, or for Tony, ladders to reach the clouds. Points to Gilliam’s fantasy world for impressing even without 3D.
The doctor, we learn, was a monk and a storyteller – hence the reference to Mount Parnassus, the mythological home of poetry and music. He also likes a drink and a bet, so pretty much your ideal flawed Faustus figure to wager with the devil (played by Tom Waits) for immortality and youth.

Inside the mirror, Tony has different faces, namely those of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Collin Farrell, who stepped in to complete Imaginarium after Ledger’s death midway through the filming. Sure, it demands a certain suspension of disbelief. Nevertheless the very Hollywood workaround does add to the film’s surrealism – even if Farrell ends up stealing the show from Ledger in the final scene.